ST EXUPERIUS, BISHOP OF TOULOUSE - 28 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 28th of September

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST EXUPERIUS, BISHOP OF TOULOUSE 

He was born, according to the most received opinion, in Aquitaine, and raised to the see of Toulouse after the death of St Sylvius. 

Saint Jerome, who corresponded with him, bestows the highest commendations on him in many places of his works. 

Above all, he praises his charity for the poor. "To relieve their hunger," says he, "he suffers it himself, and condemns himself to the severest self-denial, that he may be enabled to administer to their wants. The paleness of his face declares the rigour of his fasts; but his poverty makes him truly rich. So poor is he, as to be forced to carry the body of our Lord in an osier basket, and his blood in a glass vessel. His charity knew no bounds. It sought for objects in the most distant parts, and the solitaries of Egypt felt its beneficial effects."

It was in his time that the Vandals, the Sueves, and Alans spread horrible ravages through Gaul. The tender affection wherewith he flew to the relief of the unhappy sufferers, drew tears of joy from St Jerome's eyes. This father dedicated to him his Commentaries on the Prophet Zachary. 

St Exuperius was not witness of the taking of Toulouse by the barbarians, God having spared him so poignant an affliction. 

He was still alive in 409, since St Paulinus of Nola, who wrote in this year, reckons him among the illustrious bishops who then adorned the Gallican church. 

Neither the place nor year of his death are known. Pope Innocent addressed to him the decretal so famous in church history. It is divided into a number of articles relating to church discipline. 

St Exuperius is honoured at Toulouse on this day, and the feast of his translation celebrated on the 14th of June. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 St Exuperius' relics)

➡️ Saint Exuperius' entry in the Roman Martyrology